NYPD Data Confirms Increasing Violent Crime Downtown

Greenwich Village residents have been complaining about rising crime in their neighborhood in the wake of two violent assaults during the past week, and now the Post reports that they're not just imagining things: NYPD data shows that incidents of violent crime reported to the 6th Precinct, which includes the Village, are up almost 43 percent so far this year, compared with the same period in 2008. (There have been 40 assaults in the area so far this year, up from 28.) And violent crime rates have soared throughout downtown, with the East Village and the Lower East Side also seeing a big spike in street crime. Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Browne blames the boom on the neighborhoods' nightlife, which attracts large numbers of revelers who become targets and predators after enough drinks. G. Simon Chafik, a female photographer who has lived in Manhattan for 15 years, tells the Post, "I've never seen it like this before—never, ever. I'm a big New Yorker. New York is one of the safest cities. [But] I'm beginning to question that."